How The Amazing Optical Illusions In OK Go's New Music Video Trick Your Brain

An optical illusion is a kind of visual trick where what your
brain thinks you see is actually different from reality. In their
new music video "The Writing's On
The Wall," the rock band OK Go constructs illusions and then
deconstructs them from another angle. Rolling Stone
reported that the music video took the band nearly three
weeks and 50 takes to get right.

The song itself is about miscommunication between two people
right before they break up.

Several of the illusions were inspired by the Swiss artist Felice
Varini. From one angle, Varini's installation of "Dynamo" at the
Grand Palais in Paris looks like a web of
connected circles:

Why do optical illusions work? They rely on the tiny delay
between when we "see" something — and when we perceive what it
is.

"When light hits our retina, it takes about one-tenth of a second
for our brain to translate that signal into perception," explains
Nic Halverson at Discovery News. "Evolutionary neurobiologist
Mark Changizi says this neural delay makes our brains generate
images of what it thinks the world will look like in one-tenth of
a second. It's not always right."

In other words: Our perceptions are, to some extent, predictive.
We perceive what we expect to see until our brain is presented
with conflicting information. That's why it's so visually jarring
when an illusion reveals itself.

Here are some of our favorite optical illusions from OK Go's new
video.

Watch these stairs disappear...

...and this cube too.

The two illusions above both incorporate solid objects and
painted surfaces in order to trick your eyes. For example, the
first four yellow stairs are solid. But the last two stairs are
painted onto the floor and the pole in the background to create
an illusion of depth. Once he steps "through" the last two steps,
your eyes then register that those steps aren't real.

The same trick is used with the cubes. At first it appears that
all of the cubes are solid. However, once he steps down and
"through" the cube, your eye then registers that the cube in the
foreground is painted onto the floor and the other surrounding
cube surfaces in order to create an illusion of depth.

Notice anything weird about this bike ride?

At first glance, it seems like he is riding a bike with something
on his back. However, at the end of the clip you notice that he
is actually lying on his back, riding the bike upside down and
being pulled along the gray platform by a string.

Do you see the face?

As the camera pans upward, it seems like there is a pile of junk
to the left of the ladder. But if you look closely, the items
actually form a collage that is the reverse image of the man's
face. The red stapler corresponds to his lips. And the spatula
sitting on the paint pallette corresponds to his ear.

This guy seems to have two unmatching heads.

For this two-face illusion, it appears upon closer inspection
that it is actually the same guy, who has shaved the beard on one
side of his face and donned a wig. Later in the video (see the
cubes GIF above), he appears with half a beard.

Mirrors can be deceiving.

In the first frame of the GIF, the cameraman (in red) is facing a
mirror, and you see his reflection. There are three mirrors lined
up in a row. In between each mirror, another band member appears
in the frame holding the same position.